Bato and the Whale
by stareyed in LA
Summary: *Prequel to Shattered Memories by SparrowCries* Sedna Okpik, future tribute of District 4, sits down to listen to a story about an incident in her ancestor's youth and receives a gift that could save her in the Arena. *One-shot*


"Gather 'round my children, for tonight I'm going to tell you a story of our ancestors," Kuruk Okpik began. It was night-time, in December, around that time of the year when District 4 would be ravaged by terrible storms. Outside there was a powerful gale whistling through the palm trees that surrounded District 4. A heavy rainfall pounded the windows and the corrugated tin roof of their cottage, while the crashing of the waves from the nearby beach contributed to the chaotic, natural orchestra.

Inside, protected against the storm by the confines of his home, Kuruk sat in an old, worn arm-chair that situated next to a crackling fire. The light of the flames illuminated his weather-beaten face. His children, Sedna, Arnook, and Nini, clustered around him in a half circle, sitting cross-legged with blankets draped around their shoulders and mugs of hot tea in their hands.  
"The Okpik's are a family that has existed long before the rise of Panem," Kuruk explained, "we are a family with deep ties to the sea that can never be severed. It is a bond that has existed for hundreds of years even if our ancestral homeland is lost. Once, a long, long time ago, we did not live in the place we know as District 4. We came from a land further up north called Alaska, which, alas, is lost to history."  
"Like Mexico," Nini interrupted as she flashed back to the stories their mother, Araceli, told of her own ancestors, who were fishermen from a place called Cabo San Lucas. A wonderful paradise where it was always warm and sunny and where their ancestors lived in huts by the beach, swam with dolphins and sea turtles, and had barbeques and drank coconut milk and beer at supper.  
"In some ways, Alaska and Mexico are similar," Kuruk said, "but I appreciate it, my daughter, if you do not interrupt me again. Unlike the land your mother's people came from, Alaska was not a tropical paradise. It was like an ice kingdom, graced with glaciers and tundras and icebergs. This is the land of my father's people."  
"The story I will tell you today concerns a particular ancestor of mine, man named Bato. While his life was never recorded on paper, stories of his life passed down from generation to generation confirm that he was the only son of a prosperous fisherman and a chief's daughter and that he became a village elder later in his life."  
"Bato, like his father and his father before him, was born with sea water in his veins. From an early stage, he would go with his father on fishing expeditions along the coast of their village. You could say, as that popular saying goes around District 4, he was learning how to fish and swim before he could walk. As Bato grew older, he began going on fishing expeditions solo, something common in his village."  
"One day, when he was a young man, Bato took his kayak out to sea, as usual. He left in the morning and had told his mother and his new wife, for he had just been married to a shaman's daughter, that he would be back at sunset."  
"Something bad is going to happen to Bato, isn't it," Arnook asked solemly.  
Kuruk let out a chortle, "no, no Arnook. If Bato had died in this story, we wouldn't be sitting here telling this story today. The family line would have ended with him. Now where was I?"  
"He was taking his kayak to sea and telling his family he would be back," Sedna answered.  
Kuruk smiled at his oldest daughter before continuing his story, "during the day, Arnook cast out his nets and reeled in a good bounty of fish. But as he was about to return home, a massive tidal wave came out of nowhere and struck his kayak, breaking it into two and stranding Bato in the middle of the ocean."  
"Bato was now left clinging to the remains of his kayak. It was nearing sunset and the nights in Alaska were bitterly cold. He knew that if he could not find a way back to shore, he would die. Though Bato was a strong swimmer, he was still many, many miles away from his village."  
"He began swimming towards the direction of his village but soon found himself freezing and exhausted. The impact of the tidal wave and the cold and the paddling had sapped away his energy. Soon all Bato could do was cling to his broken kayak and pray to Sedna, the old lady of the sea and your name sake," Kuruk paused to nod in Sedna's direction, "to save him from death."  
"'I am only a young man with a young wife,' Bato cried out, 'I can not leave her a widow so soon after becoming a bride.'"  
"But night was falling and Bato slowly resigned himself to his fate. Just as he was about to give up all hope of rescue, a spout of water shot up from the distance. Bato strained his eyes to see what it was, and realized that a killer whale was coming in his direction!"  
"This terrified Bato. Though you children may think killer whales are beautiful creatures, they are also vicious animals who can rip apart a man. This was something Bato knew all to well."  
"'Sedna has given me a quick death then,' Bato said. Just as he closed his eyes and expected the whale to swallow him whole, he did not feel the warmth of a whale's jaws closing in on him. Instead, when he opened his eyes, he realized he was sitting on top of the killer whale! The whale was taking him back to the village."  
"Within the hour, Bato was returned to his village and reunited with his family. But as he turned around to thank the whale who had saved his life, it was gone. Presumably back from whence it came. Though Bato never got the chance to give his thanks to the whale, he gave his thanks to the goddess who had a hand in saving his life."  
"I am telling you this story now to explain a quirk in our family," Kuruk said, "have you ever wondered why I carve images of killer whales into our boats?"  
"I always thought it was to tell our boats from the other families'," Arnook said, "you know, the Cruz's have mermaids, the Torrance's have dolphins, and the Lee's down the street have Asian sea monsters."  
"That's what the Lee's call them," Nini asked, "I thought they were dragons."  
"Nope, they're Japanese sea monsters. That's what their daughter Erica told me."

"Yeah, but Erica's got a wild imagination," Sedna said, "she's always telling those crazy stories of hers and then writing them down in that notebook she carries around. So she's probably making the Japanese sea monsters up, like she always does."  
"Enough of what the Lee's carve into their boats," Kuruk said, silencing his children. "Though yes, I have to carve the killer whale into our boat so that I don't catch Billy Cresta trying to jack my boat and claim its his, again. But the real reason is of something Bato did to give his thanks to the killer whale. He designated that animal as a spirit guide and a protector of the Okpik family. When I go out to sea with a boat carved with an insignia of the killer whale, its protecting me from harm. Just as I wear this talisman when I am away from the sea."  
Kuruk reached into his sweater front and pulled out a large, carved object. It was a pendant, dangling from a bit of leather, carved into the form of the killer whale. "This talisman is like a good luck charm for me. I carved this when I was twelve years old, thinking it would protect me from being Reaped into the Hunger Games, and it has never given me a bad day when I wear it. Which brings me to this."  
Kuruk reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a small, wrapped package.  
"This is for you, Sedna," he said, handing the package to his eldest daughter. Sedna carefully unwrapped it, revealing a similar killer whale talisman like the one her father wears.  
"Thank you, father," she said, taking the pendant and fastening it around her neck.  
"You're going into the Hunger Games come next year," Kuruk explained, "District 4 hasn't had a good streak so far. But as long as you wear this talisman, you will be safe and you will go far. Very, very far."  
Sedna smiled, touched by her father's gift, rose and gave him a tight hug.

"Thank you," she whispered into his ear, "as long as I wear it, I will not let you down. Promise."

* * *

Author's Note: I had originally written this piece as a reference for myself to give a bit of back story to the whale talisman Sedna adopts as her tribute token in SparrowCries' story "Shattered Memories". I'm publishing it by encouragement of SparrowCries, so I'm going to dedicate this to you. And to WhispersofBliss and Chiri-Tan who made it ok to write fanfics for the characters in her stories.

All right's to Sedna, her family, and her acquaintances are mine. The Hunger Games belongs to Suzanne Collins. And don't know if this should count, but since I was strapped for names, I did borrow a couple of names from Avatar: The Last Airbender, so the rights to those names belong to the creators of the show.


End file.
